Seminar in Historical Analysis (405-0-22)
Topic
Comparative Racial Thought
Instructors
Jonathon P Glassman
847/491-8963
Harris Hall 316
Jonathon Glassman writes and teaches primarily about 19th and 20th century Africa, comparative race and slavery, and the intersections between crime and social protest. His most recent book, on racial thought and violence in colonial Zanzibar (Tanzania), won the American Historical Association’s Klein Prize for the year’s best book on African history. Among his other awards, he has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two Fulbright Grants for study in Tanzania.
Meeting Info
Harris Hall L40: Thurs 10:00AM - 12:50PM
Overview of class
This course introduces major debates in the comparative history of revolution. The global analysis starts in France; proceeds with the spread of revolutionary ideologies in the Americas; returns to Europe for 1848 and 1917; tacks back to the Americas for peasant revolutions in Mexico and Cuba; and then migrates to China before ending in a consideration of the revolutions that never happened. En route we will explore the intellectual history of revolution in the works of Tocqueville, Marx, Lenin, James, Guevara and Scott, juxtaposing these texts with more recent scholarship to shed light on their multiple qualities: primary sources, political prescriptions and analytical frameworks.
Learning Objectives
The anatomy of the world's major revolutions, and the ideas and methods used to anatomize them.
Evaluation Method
essay, 70%; seminar presentation, 20%; participation, 10%
Class Notes
Concentration: Americas